School Counselor Program Assessment:

A Conversation with Tatiana Olmedo

Luna Flynn

Rossier School of Education, University of Southern California

EDUC 511: Introduction to School Counseling

Dr. Christina Green

March 12, 2022

 Carver Engineering and Science - Program Assessment with Tatiana Olmedo

For this assignment, I will discuss in first person to better facilitate the conversation and

reporting of my interview with Ms. Olmedo. Tatiana Olmedo is one of two counselors at Carver

Engineering and Science, located in the suburbs of Philadelphia, part of the School District

Philadelphia. This school services about 900 students from 7th to 12th grade, with a

demographic of 69% African American, 11% Asian American, and 10% or less of White

American, Hispanic American and Biracial students (Public School Review). Because of the

large population of the school and small counseling team, Ms. Olmedo has to service close to

450 students, much higher than the recommended ASCA ratio of 250:1. This does create a large

pressure on Ms. Olmedo and her colleague to service the entire population. Because of this, their

primary focus lies primarily on academic support and college/career readiness.

This school, as suggested by the name, has a strong STEM focus. Because of its rigorous

academic program, it is admission only. While Carver is a public school, it has an admissions

process to help ensure student success. Some of the requirements to enter into this academy

include high GPA, good attendance, and the completion of an essay. As Carver is very

academically driven, their graduation rates are at 98% (Public School Review). Ms. Olmedo

explained that these high graduation rates contribute to high college attendance as well.

Academic success and college/career readiness is actually one of the areas Ms. Olmedo

identifies as a strength of their current programs at Carver. In fact, Carver Engineering and

Science has a college acceptance rate of 100% (Carver Engineering and Science)! Upon further

discussion, Ms. Olmedo explained the various programs offered at Carver that help to prepare

students for college not only through academic readiness, but also with support for financial

aid/college applications, SAT/ACT, and college outreach. Juniors there have access to a
college/career fair (up to 80 or 90 colleges!) that allows them to meet with Carver Alumni in a

variety of fields and from a plethora of colleges. In this way, current students are exposed to the

many opportunities that are available after high school. Evening sessions are also offered for

parents to get a better sense for how college applications and financial aid works to best support

their students. Carver High also partners with a variety of programs in order to benefit the

students' access to information for college and test prep. Part of this are dual enrollment

opportunities at “Temple, Penn, Drexl, CCP, and University of the Sciences” (Carver

Engineering and Science). Moreover, Carver’s partnership with Stepping Stones Scholars grants

students access to enrichment programs at colleges and other outside agencies, including

connecting students to scholarship and internship opportunities. Stepping Stones Scholars

actually has a permanent advisor who works at Carver High directly, so this actually helps the

counseling team manage college resources for their incredibly large caseload. Another

organization Carver High has worked with is the Illeana Leadership Organization which is a

national company that allows students to take a test prep course over the summer that includes

SAT/ACT preparatory materials and tests, leadership development courses, and a college

experience as students can stay overnight at a nearby college or university. This program also

ensures students feel prepared for official tests by hosting a refresher course nearer to test dates.

In addition to this resource, Carver High offers an ‘in-house’ SAT/ACT program for only $20

that includes instruction, book, and a pizza party at the end of the course. Many teachers can

participate in this, and Carver also offers a diagnostic test to students. Carver offers much

support for college, especially for seniors. Seniors are able to participate in many workshops for

FAFSA, managing financial aid in general, applications, AP/Honors preparation, college

outreach and connections, and test preparation. As there are quite a few students who are first
generation, it is hard to navigate the complicated work of college applications without a

supportive team to have their back. With respect to the academic side of college readiness,

Carver excels in supporting students graduate.

Ms. Olmedo highlighted one of the strengths of her program as helping students succeed

when at risk of failing. As a Tier II intervention of the Multi-Tiered System of Support, Ms.

Olmedo and her fellow counselor work with students who are failing on an individual basis to

make a plan of action to get the students back on track. For seniors in particular, Ms. Olmedo

will make a “Senior Contract” in which parents, students, teachers, and school counselors agree

on a set plan to help the senior complete the necessary courses with good enough grades to pass

and graduate. This more involved intervention has helped Carver maintain a graduation rate of

90+, with the latest data I could find showing a 98% graduation rate (Public School Review). As

a minor side note, I tried to find a similar demographic/data site as the California School

Dashboard, and I came across the Future Ready PA Index via the Pennsylvania Department of

Education’s website, but I was unable to find information on Carver Engineering and Science on

the Future Ready Index. I tried looking for alternate names like Carver High, George Washington

Carver, or HSES, but was unable to find this school specifically. Therefore, I found the Public

School Review page that did have some demographic information on Carver.

Nevertheless, I wanted to discuss the last strength Ms. Olmedo discussed which is

Carver’s rich and challenging curriculum. I am not completely sure if we discussed it in this class

or one of my other classes, but one of the best ways to keep students in school is to make the

program interesting enough that they want to be at school as often as they can. We want students

to enjoy school, because when they enjoy it, they will be more motivated to succeed. Some of the

ways Carver keeps students engaged is by having “no gate keeping”. Ms. Olmedo explains that
this means students can pick any AP or Honors class that they want without needing to complete

prerequisites or test into it. In this way, each student can pursue whatever they want without an

additional obstacle. This has allowed students more freedom in their curriculum, which lets them

learn what they want, and therefore they are more motivated to learn. Furthermore, because

Carver has a STEM focus, there are many programs for the sciences within academics as well as

extracurriculars. Some of these programs include a Computer Science Pathway, Robotics Teams,

and ACE Mentor Program with Architecture and Engineering internships (Carver Engineering

and Science). One program Ms. Olmedo highlighted was an all girls robotics team called Gear

Girls which can be an incredibly empowering club for young, aspiring women.

On the other hand, Ms. Olmedo identified a few barriers preventing her from

implementing the ASCA national model fully into her program. First and foremost is that the

ratio of students to counselors is unmanageable. Having 1 counselor service around 450 students

does not leave the counselors enough time to meet with each and every student and get to know

them and their families. Because of this high case load, Ms. Olmedo and her fellow counselor

can only help students who either seek help out themselves, or are referred for mental health or

academic reasons. This leads into the next barrier being access to resources and funding.

This barrier is pretty straightforward. Obviously, having the ratio of students to counselor

being 450:1, Ms. Olmedo’s team is short a counselor or two. Also, the school does not alot much

funding to social-emotional learning workshops or forums, nor does it grant much support to

mental health and trauma informed practices. In terms of mental health support, Ms. Olmedo has

encountered countless obstacles in getting therapy or psychological help for her students. Certain

organizations have ridiculous obstacles to mental health care including requirements like already

having medicaid insurance, already having a prior mental health diagnosis, and already getting
parental consent. Needless to say, these are absolutely inequitable, and as Ms. Olmedo pointed

out, even illegal as Pennsylvania has a law stating that no child over the age of 14 is required to

provide parental consent to gain health care services. As the school’s primary focus is on

academics, more money is funneled toward getting the best teachers and programs, while the

behavior and mental support for students is diminished. As a part of resources, even for

academic support, Ms. Olmedo identified language barriers as being another obstacle to

student/family support.

What Ms. Olmedo identified is that many college/career readiness programs do not offer

materials in other languages. The district does try to help by offering multi-lingual sessions, but

ironically, the invitations to these are sent out in English. Additionally, if parents do seek help in

getting translated materials, they have to be proactive about going to the district office to ask for

that. This can be difficult as there are many language barriers to overcome just to get pertinent

information, practically cutting certain parents off from ever gaining a full understanding.

Similarly, college support materials like informational guides are almost never printed in

multiple languages. Ms. Olmedo explained that if she could get materials in Chinese,

Vietnamese, Bengali, or Arabic, her students’ families would feel much more prepared and

secure in their childrens’ futures.

In regards to improving the school counseling program at Carver Engineering and

Science, Ms. Olmedo already has a few ideas and dreams. Primarily, adding a member to the

school counseling team would be incredibly helpful in managing the caseload. Even a clinical

social worker or a school psychologist to help with mental health and societal issues would

drastically improve the social-emotional support aspect of the program. On the other hand, Ms.
Olmedo identified career outreach as a possible area of improvement to help students find

additional opportunities if they chose to follow a path other than college.

With respect to data collection or needs assessments, Ms. Olmedo explained that there is

simply not enough time to do the thorough data collection recommended by ASCA. She is still

able to gain access to demographic information, and focuses largely on graduation rates,

academic success, and college acceptance as a measure of success. Again, this is because this

school focuses many of its resources on academics. Ms. Olmedo has worked closely with the

stakeholders in her community to come up with general action plans and monthly calendars to

keep track of yearly goals for Carver High. Unfortunately, Ms. Olmedo discusses that this job

can be stressful because of the sheer amount of students each counselor is assigned, so they can

only do so much for the students.

Nevertheless, the programs they currently have in place are helping their students

succeed in many ways already, and Ms. Olmedo is constantly fighting and proactively working

for systemic change. It was very enlightening and inspiring to talk with her and I am very

grateful for her help in discussing what being an acting school counselor is like. I was able to

understand the reality of the job better, and it was a bit of a reality check for some of the ideal

programs I would want to implement. I need to learn more about how to balance resources

within my community when I become a school counselor myself. I would like to thank Ms.

Olmedo once again.

 References

Carver Engineering and Science. (n.d.). Carver at a glance. Carver Engineering and Science.

Retrieved from https://hses.philasd.org/about-us/at-a-glance/

Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. (2022). Future ready pa index. Pennsylvania Department of

Education. Retrieved from

https://www.education.pa.gov/K-12/ESSA/FutureReady/Pages/default.aspx

Flynn, L. C. (2022, March 11). Interview with Tatiana Olmedo . personal.

Public School Review. (2022). High School of Engineering & Science Carver High School (2022

ranking): Philadelphia, PA. Public School Review. Retrieved from

https://www.publicschoolreview.com/high-school-of-engineering-science-carver-high-sch

ool-profile